A Friendship as Tough as Diamonds
by Crazy but Happy
Summary: After being on earth for over 5 months, Baron finally finds Lance, Octus, and Ilana in Sherman, Illinois. He wants to make peace and be friends with Lance but will Lance do the same? BaronXLance
1. Look Who's Here

I landed on the ground in an alleyway. I deactivated my clear armor and now I was in a pair of jeans and a grey polo. I wasn't that new to earth, but I was new to Illinois and my new school, Sherman High.

I walked into the classroom and sat down next to an all-too-familiar black-haired boy. I smiled at him.

"Hey Lance, long time no see." He looked at me with a confused expression before turning back to the front of the class

"Do I know you?" I chuckled a little.

"I'm not sure if you recognize me or not, we both have grown so much. But I think you'll remember my name." Just as I said that, the teacher started role call.

"Lance Lunas, Baron Barkovski…" As she went on I noticed Lance's eyes widen and look at me. He seemed to freeze that whole rest of the class. When the bell rang, Lance grabbed me roughly by the arm and pushed me against the lockers with a loud bang.

"What the hell are you doing here Baron? Come to try to kill me again?" He asked fiercely.

"No." My short answer seemed to be one of his buttons. He pushed me against the lockers again, this time harder.

"Then why are you here?" he asked again.

"For your information, I was sent here an earth year before you so that I could scout the land and make sure it was safe enough for you and the princess." This seemed to calm him down a little.

"Have you heard anything from Galaluna since you've been here?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Well I have. I got one distress message a week ago. All I heard was a man screaming 'Modula'." He looked back at me.

"Wait, how did you get a distress message that quickly?" I smiled and pointed to my diamond ring.

"It's my armor. It's top of the line and made out of the strongest Hefilamite, I need to show it to you later." Lance narrowed his eyes.

"Who said I wanted to hang out with you? I thought you hated me…and I hated you back." I frowned at him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"This is a time of war, we all have to band together and become one strong force. We all have to be friends. And besides, I never really...hated you, I just wanted to look tough infront of my friends." He still looked like he wasn't buying it.

"Look tough infront of your friends? That's real mature." I started laughing at his comment.

"We were 11 and 12! And now we're what, 16? 17? I think we've matured a little." I chuckled to myself.

"I suppose...I'm still not letting my eye off of you Baron. Not ever. Especially around the princess."

"Pa-leese, I would never harm a hair on the princess's head. We _are _both Galalunians after all." Lance nodded.

"I suppose so..." He started to walk away. I frowned before he turned back to face me.

"You coming?" I smiled brighter and I ran to catch up to him. This looked like the beginning of a bright friendship.

/

Welcome to my new story, A Friendship as Tough as Diamonds! This is chapter one and I'll update quite frequently. You can expect the next chapter up in a day or two.

Danke and please review!


	2. Let's Talk About Me

Earth school was the most boring thing that I have ever been in! All we do is sit and sit and sit and listen to the old man we had to call "teacher" pfft; It's not like I even cared about evolution or human science. I mean, it's not like I'm a human, so it doesn't really apply to me. I just know the academy was MUCH more advanced than this school.

I sat at a black table in the science lab next to Lance. I was surprised how, erm, open and accepting he was to me. I mean, I _did_ try to kill him. I guess that things can change after a few, what was it? 5 years? Yeah, I think so. I slumped with my head in my arms as the teacher talked in a monotone voice about something called meiosis. Sooo boring; how about we talk about me?

I've defiantly changed since the academy. My hair is still white and I let it grow out a little, I usually put it in a small ponytail. I've grown about a foot; I couldn't believe how much Lance had grown. He's at least a half a foot taller than me! The princess is really pretty too; it's been a while since I've seen anyone from Galaluna. But we pretty much look the same as the humans, so who knows, I might have seen another Galalunian but I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. It's not like I know everyone on Galaluna.

After the incident with Lance, my father took me to another school; it was almost as good as The Academy. I was disappointed, but I made do. Once I graduated, I was given the opportunity to help my home by taking a ship and going through the rift gate to scout the planet that the princess was going to go to. We knew a war was coming, so we wanted to be prepared for anything. I gladly accepted the offer and was blasted off to earth. At first it was a bit difficult, but I soon learned how to blend in and appear like one of them. I landed in a large vastness of land the humans called Montana. The space I was currently in was almost absent of humans, beside a family or two; so I moved to a more populated area.

I traveled all around the "United States of America" until I finally got the alert that the princess and whoever else was with her had gone through the rift gate and landed on earth. It took me a while to get their exact coordinates; I just got them a few days ago. I wasn't surprised to see Lance with the princess; he was the best in the academy at pretty much everything.

I've heard all about the Titan. You know the giant robot that keeps saving Sherman, Illinois? Yeah, I know it was just their armors all wrapped up into one giant fighting robot. It's so awesome! I mean, it could destroy anything that could come in its way! That's a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.

My armor was pretty cool too though; it was made from a metal called Hefilamite. It was the Galalunian equivalent of earth diamonds, except it was almost 142X stronger. It made it completely clear and almost invisible when I was flying fast enough. The only things you could really see would be me and the circuitry. It also has excellent reception, receiving messages from Galaluna in only four days to a week. But what I'm really worried about is that the only message I've received since I got here was the one distress call of the man screaming 'Modula'.

I'm not stupid, I knew who Modula was, but I thought he had died a while ago. How could he just come back to life with the whole army of the Mutradi? It's neither possible nor logical.

I looked out the window just as I saw an explosion erupt down town near here. Lance heard it too and he was out of his seat and in the hallway before I could even process what was happening. I ran out of my seat and followed, ignoring the threats of detention from the teacher.


	3. Another day in Sherman, Illinois

I ran through the front doors of the school, I was about to activate my armor before I saw that the Titan seemed to have everything under control. The monster this time was a mix of some cat-thing and I think a giant slug, it was totally disgusting. It surprised me how quickly they all gathered together and activated titan.

I looked around at all of the civilians that were frozen in fear and awe. Their shocked faces made me laugh, but I also noticed some other civilians just going about their daily tasks like they didn't even notice the monster, or they were just used to it already.

As soon as the battle had started, it was done. To my great distain, they had to make the giant cat-slug explode, making guts and pieces of the monster fly everywhere and cover everyone, including me. I grimaced as I wiped the slime off of my grey polo and my designer jeans. Man, this pair cost almost $200! At least I had an unlimited supply of earth currency back at my apartment. Speaking of which, I think I'll head back there right now.

"Baron, where are you going?" I turned around and saw Lance only a few feet away from me. Where the hell did he come from? I turned around and pointed behind me.

"I'm heading back to my apartment." Lance raised an eyebrow.

"You have an apartment? And you'll get in trouble if you skip school." I flipped a gooey piece of hair out of my face.

"I have to go take a shower. I am not going the whole day with slug guts all over me." Lance rolled his eyes and I just turned around and started walking.

"You know there _are _showers in the school gym. They have washers and dryers too so you can clean your clothes." I stopped and turned towards him.

"Why do you care? You shoved me against a locker this morning and now you want to help me out like we're old friends. What up with you?" Lance looked down in what looked like a mix of shame and him thinking.

"I…don't really know. I just feel like we have to take care of each other because we're the only ones of our kind on earth. That's one of the top rules of battle: Take care of your own…even if you can't stand them." He whispered the last part but I heard it clear as day. I felt my heart crunch in my chest, a pain that you would feel if someone you really liked just totally dissed you…Not that I liked Lance or anything! Just as an example.

"Oh, I guess you do have a point…Show me the way to the locker rooms." I said cheerfully with a smile on my face. I heard that if you act like a certain emotion, you'll end up actually feeling that way. And for some reason, I felt pretty crummy right now.

Xxxx

"So here's the locker room." I looked around. It was nothing special or anything, just a bunch of lockers and a few showers. There was also a washer and dryer. I looked into the public shower and I cringed, I always hated when we had to take showers at the academy.

"Um, there are private showers too." As if Lance was reading my min d, he walked over and pointed to the few cubical showers with curtains in front. I let out a thankful sigh and smiled.

"That's good. I would rather walk around in slug guts then take a public shower in a school that I just got to." Lance actually smiled a little at my comment and I smiled too.

Lance walked away, leaving me alone in the locker rooms. I undressed and turned on one of the showers. The hot water washed away all of the grime and seemed to also wash away all of my worries.


	4. Towels

After I turned off the shower, I realized that I forgot something very important: a towel. I groaned in frustration then sighed, maybe I could get lance to go get me one. I pressed my ring and a screen popped up. Lance's number to his watch was automatically stored in my armor's database. It collects any info of any armor or weapon that comes in a 100 meter radius of me.

I heard the dial tone and I waited for him to pick up. It was at least a minute until he did.

"Hello?" I smiled and waved, but when he saw me his expression turned into a one of annoyance. "What do you want?"

"Hey Lance, I forgot to get a towel. Do you think you could get me one?" he sighed.

"Do you have to have one? I mean, class is still in session." I rolled my eyes.

"Like you care about school; you ran out without a second thought when that monster appeared. Besides, I saw you in class, you looked like you were about to fall asleep." He looked away and was about to disconnect.

"Hey! Don't you dare hang up one me!" But it was too late; he had already disconnected the call. I leaned up against the tile wall and sighed. What was I going to do? I tried calling lance again for the next few minutes until I heard someone come in. Crap!

I peeked out of the curtain to see who it was. It was none other than Lance with a large white towel in his arms.

"Hey, why didn't you answer any of my other calls? And where'd you get the towel?" He walked over and threw it at me. I quickly wrapped it around my waist and stepped out onto the locker room floor. I shivered at the freezing cold of the cement and the cold breeze against my bare skin.

"I found it on a shelf on the other side of the locker room." I smiled gratefully and mentally kicked myself in the ass for not actually looking for one in the locker room.

"Thanks Lance, I appreciate it…I really do." I sort of whispered the last part and I grabbed my dirty clothes and walked over to the washing machine. I looked back at Lance and noticed that he was leaning up against one of the lockers staring at me.

"Umm, that's all I really needed if you want to go back to class." He looked to the side and shrugged his shoulders.

"Nah, I told him I needed to go to the nurse so I don't have to be back anytime soon."

"Okay, whatever." I turned back around and started the washing machine then I went and sat down on one of the benches, which were just as cold as the floor.

"Lance?" He looked up at me, "Your dad isn't crazy. I'm sorry I said that so long ago." A hint of sadness flashed across his face.

"It's alright Baron. Like you said, we were just kids back then." I nodded and we both had a small smile on our faces.

I looked up and I spaced out for a while, waiting for my clothes to be done.


	5. Memories and Punches

I heard the dryer I was leaning on beep and I smiled. My clothes were finally clean again! I opened the door of the machine and yanked my clothes out. I slipped on my shirt and managed to keep my towel on while I put on my boxers. I felt my face get hot even though it was cold in the locker room. I could clearly see Lance looking at me like he was waiting for me to jump up and put a knife to his throat.

After I was done getting my clothes on, I tossed the towel into the washing machine, not caring if it would get cleaned or not. Then I walked over to Lance and stared him in the eyes. I was mad that I had to look up to look in his eyes. I could plainly see suspicion in his eyes, but I could also see something else. I couldn't figure what it was exactly, but I know I saw something.

"Why do you keep watching me?" An air of awkward fell between us. Neither of us talked for a moment and I coughed to break the silence.

"How old are you?" I raised an eyebrow, what a random question to ask.

"17, why? How old are you?"

"16 but I'm turning 17 in a few months. I was wondering because you seem a bit, I don't know, short." I put my hands on my hips and looked at him with a shocked expression. I was sincerely offended.

"Well So-rry that not all of us can be super in shape and tall. You probably have a hoard of girls following you around here, don't you?" He smiled and crossed his arms.

"Ha, you jealous?" I thought for a moment. When it came to my body being compared to his, yeah, I was jealous. But jealous about a hoard of girls following him around? Not so much.

"Not about the girls. I would think that that would be annoying." He raised an eyebrow.

"You seem like the type that would soak up the attention." I shrugged my shoulders.

"I used to be like that when I was younger, but not anymore. Let's just say that I got sort of a reality check at the school my father transferred me to." I looked down at the ground, memories flashing before my eyes.

"What did they do to you?" I took a deep breath then sighed.

"Well, this school wasn't as kind as the Academy. I was late for a class _once_, and guess the way they punished me. Not something easy like cleaning the classroom or even getting a detention. Hell, I would have killed to have just gotten a detention. No, they beat me until I was unconscious. They called it 'building character'." I looked back up at Lance and he looked honestly interested in what I was saying, but not in the way I would have guessed. He didn't look at me with satisfaction that I got beaten like I thought he would, but with pity, pure and honest sympathy.

"They of course hid all of this away from my parents. They checked up on my progress every month or so but they thought the cuts and bruises were just from battle practice. At least they were proud that I was doing so well. Oh, and that wasn't the only time I was beaten. I was beaten if I got a bad grade or did badly in the simulated war battles. The headmaster told me 'If you whisper one word of this to anyone outside of this school, your bones won't be the only thing that would be broken.' I think he meant that they would crush me _and _my spirit. Well, it worked." Lance got up from the bench he was sitting on and came to stand next to me.

"I'm…I'm so sorry that that happened. A few years ago I would have thought that you deserved it. But now…I don't know." I looked at him for a moment,

"It's alright Lance. I would understand completely how you feel. I'm telling you this sappy tale and you just don't want to admit your true feelings because you think might hurt me. My spirit's been hurt enough through my life, one more wouldn't make a difference." Lance put a frustrated expression.

"I'm not lying! I really care about you! No one, even you, deserves that kind of treatment." I smiled a little.

"Thanks Lance, I've been waiting to hear that from you for a while." Lance tilted his head a bit.

"What do you mean?" I stepped in front of Lance and put both of my hands on his shoulders.

"Lance, you have to open your mind wide for what I'm about to say." I swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"Lance, I think I love you." We stood there for a moment, I let go of his shoulders and we were just looking into each other's eyes. Lance searched mine for a hint that I was kidding. When he saw that there was none, he stepped back and did what I had expected. He shook his head and looked at me like I was crazy. I mean, who was I kidding? He's like the straightest guy that you would ever meet.

I looked away and closed my eyes in shame, expecting an attack of insults to come my way. But Lance did another thing that I should have seen coming, he walked back up to me and solidly punched me in the face. I fell backwards and I felt like I was going to faint from pain. Any normal person would have been knocked out instantly from a punch that strong, but like I said before, I was used to pain.

I heard him walk fast out of the locker room and slam the door on his way out.

Well that was fun…


	6. Nightmare Sort of

I rubbed my cheek in pain and groaned. What did I do? I had a good thing going there for a while. I mean, Lance's friendship was so close I could almost taste it, and I had to go ruin it by telling him one of my deepest and darkest secrets.

Homosexuality wasn't necessarily smiled upon on Galaluna. People didn't care because if had become sort of a norm, but some people thought it was disgusting. I suppose I can see where they're coming from; the actual norm was a woman with a man.

I never actually thought that Lance was gay, but I knew I was. It seemed pretty obvious to me since I was little, so I thought it would be obvious to other people too.

I haven't always liked Lance. Back at the academy I just thought of him as fresh meat that I could pick on. But through my years of being at the Other School, as I called it, I've needed a person or thing that would always be there when I needed it. I needed someone who cared about me and, well, loved me. I haven't felt love since I arrived at that wretched school. I guess you could call it an imaginary friend. It was sort of just a faceless figure at first, but more I was beaten and hurt, the more it was molded. The final form, I realized, was Lance.

God, now that I think of it, the more I think I was sick in the head, you know, crazy. Maybe the Other School put something in the food at meal time.

Anyway, through those tough years, Lance was always by my side whenever I needed someone to talk to, someone to help me through the beatings, telling me 'Don't worry Baron, it's almost over.' Maybe I was trying to make up for that year I was so mean to him, so that I could get some guilt out of my system. Well, it doesn't matter anymore. That Lance was gone. Now I have to deal with the Lance that hates my guts and thinks I'm a super creeper. Woo hoo.

xxxx

I walked slowly into the classroom with my head down, hoping that I wouldn't have to see Lance's face. I slumped down in my seat and put my head on the table. I groaned to myself when I heard the teacher say my name.

"Baron, why were you absent? And what happened to your face?" I looked up at him with a small scowl.

"I got giant slug guts all over me so I had to go take a shower and clean my clothes. About my face, I…I slipped and fell on the way out of the shower." I cautiously looked back at Lance to see him looking at me too, but he quickly looked away when he saw me looking. My heart felt like it was in a choke hold.

I laid my head in my arms on the table top, and tried to fall asleep, hoping that I would wake up from this nightmare.


	7. Nacho Cheesy

Well, here's chapter 7 of A Friendship as tough as diamonds. I'm sort of trying to speed up the romance in this one.

Thank you to all of my readers and reviewers! I love you all!

I do not own Sym-Bionic Titan. Because if i did, it wouldn't be allowed on television.

* * *

The bell finally rang after what seemed like an eternity. It was also the best time of the day: the end of the school day!

I almost ran out of the classroom. I quickly grabbed my stuff out of the locker, and then I sped out of the building. I activated my armor before I could hear Lance call my name in frustration.

"Maybe I shouldn't have even come to Sherman." I thought out loud. I flew at least 75 mph, which was highly unnecessary, until I got back to my apartment.

I landed in the ally way next to the apartment complex and deactivated my armor. Then I casually walked up to my apartment.

It wasn't much to look at. I had a couch and a table with a TV on it, a decent kitchen, then bed and another TV in the bedroom. Not much, but enough to live.

I fell onto the couch and groaned again. When I was back at the Other School, I got pretty used to sitting in my self-pity; or in this case, laying in it.

I rubbed my cheek, which was better and not swollen anymore. I couldn't get Lance's angry face out of my mind; it made me feel even more terrible and utterly embarrassed.

I turned on the TV and the show Jersey Shore. It was just a mindless jumble of drinking, partying, and fighting, but it admittedly made me feel better. At least I had a brain, unlike most of the characters on the show.

I heard a knock at the door. It was probably the landlady wanting me to give her more money. Since she saw me pay with cash, she must have thought I was filthy rich. So now she won't stop probing me for money.

I walked to the door, not bothering to see who it was first.

"Mrs. Carlon, I can't lend you any more money." It wasn't Mrs. Carlon, it was Lance.

My eyes widened, let out a little 'meep', and I slammed the door shut. Then I leaned against it and put a hand to my forehead. I must be dreaming.

"Oh my god, what is he doing here? How did he figure out where I was?" I whispered harshly to myself. Well, that didn't matter anyway. He's here and I needed to face him sooner or later, why not it me sooner?

I took a deep breath and opened the door again. I let out a nervous laugh and patted the door.

"Hehe...Sorry, I thought you were someone else." Lance raised an eyebrow.

"So…what can I do for you? Oh, and please come in." I motioned for him to come inside. I must have been dreaming.

I watched him closely as he looked around my apartment. Now I was embarrassed that it didn't look better or more chic and cool.

"Baron, I need to talk to you about…what you said before in the locker room. And I also apologize for punching you, I shouldn't have done that." Lance was apologizing? I should be the one who should be doing the apologizing.

"Oh yeah...I'm really sorry about that. I didn't know what I was saying and I was delirious and senseless and foolish and-"

"Baron, it's okay. I'm not mad at you or anything, I'm just confused. I mean, you appear in school after not seeing you in who knows how long, you say you want to be my friend, and then not even 3 hours later you say you love me." I felt a blush rise to my face as I recollected the events that happened.

"Yeah, well…I don't really know what to say…" Lance walked over to me and to my surprise, put a hand around my waist. He got close, really close. I mean, like, inches away from my face.

My breath got shallow and I felt like my heart had risen into my throat.

"You don't have to say anything." Then he pressed his lips into mine.


End file.
